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Intentional Family Spirituality: Guiding Children Towards Faith

Dive into the key factors for strong families and potential dynamics in nurturing an intentional spiritual environment within your family. Explore spiritual dimensions, family worship, mentoring faith, and understanding heritage.

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Intentional Family Spirituality: Guiding Children Towards Faith

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  1. Spiritual Parenting: A Family Network Program

  2. Parents “Are the guarantors of faith. They give children their first pictures of God and help them develop a wonderful Christian virtue called trust, which as they grow older becomes the basis for faith.”

  3. Research: Factors for Strong Families • Mother comfortable with faith talk. • Enforces drug standards. • Family worship is interesting and meaningful. • Parents strongly oppose adolescent alcohol use. • Loving, caring family. • Mother is highly religious. • Parents punish wrong behavior. • Frequent parent/child communication. • Parents set limits. • Father often talks to child about his faith. • Frequent family helping projects.

  4. Potential Dynamics in the Family • Nurturing intentional family spirituality • Strengthening family worship • Mentoring personal faith • Understanding our heritage • Facilitating faithful families

  5. Intentional Spirituality

  6. What do you think about when you hear the word “religion?” Spirituality • Spirituality focuses on a growing sense of a daily relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord. • Spirituality is never done only in private, it involves community.

  7. Spirituality (Eph. 4:11-16) • The family is the place where God is first learned. • Spiritual life naturally grows, as do the people in which it is experienced. • Spiritual life is a part of every stage of life

  8. Key Dimensions to Intentional Spiritual Parenting Make spirituality to be a focus and target for your family life #1 Make the choice to do something

  9. #2 Provide opportunities for spiritual growth Provide: • the community; • the opportunity, • environment where God’s love can be felt

  10. #3 Move your choices to action Develop action plans and make commitments to stick with those plans

  11. #4 Spirituality is not just a private matter, it is a family matter • Establish patterns for spiritual life: • prayers before meals, at bedtime, and during times of trouble. • church attendance & participation • family worship

  12. #5 Relationships with others central and crucial > Care for our spouses and parents. > Care for others around us: the sick, homeless, neighbors

  13. Family Worship

  14. The Valuegenesis Project on Family Worship How often does your family haveworship? Never 23% 26% Less than once a month 13% 11% About once a month 7% 6% About 2-3 times a month 9% 8% About once a week 16% 15% Several times a week 11% 11% Once a day 15% 15% More than once a day 6% 8%

  15. Key Factors in Creative Family Worships #1 Make family worship short, sweet and simple 5-10 minutes – preschoolers 15-20 minutes -- primary age

  16. #2 Make worship meaningful > Start where the children live. > Use significant events at school, and at play. > Use relevant life situations for spiritual lessons.

  17. #3 Make worship frequent Habits are formed by repetition #4 Do "shared" worship • Share leadership • Switch methods • Involve children

  18. #5 Find a regular time > Study all your schedules to see what might work. > Build a schedule and begin to keep it. > Better to do something once a week with meaning than to try to fit worships into an overly crowded schedule.

  19. #6 Set an important example > Parental attitudes, actions, habits, priorities, speech, gestures, excitement, etc. reflect and teach children just what kind of a God they serve.

  20. #7 Use routine moments to see God > Prayer at mealtimes and bedtimes. > Reading the Bible with the children at breakfast, supper or before bedtime. > Develop your own personal devotional time.

  21. Mentoring Personal Faith

  22. Key Factors in Mentoring Faith #1 Don't forget congenial relationships #2 Use gentle reasoning

  23. #3 Don't forget faith-talk #4 Study God's word #5 Communicate through a grace orientation #6 Keep everything positive

  24. #7 Pray in your own words > Pray out loud with children > Teach children different types of prayers: * ACTS prayers A – adoration C – confession T – thanksgiving S – supplication/petition

  25. #8 Pray at regular and natural times > Natural times: -- leaving for school -- before driving somewhere -- leave for overnight stay -- sickness -- birthdays

  26. #9 Vary positions and locations of prayer for the family #10 Learn to care and share #11 Encourage love and compassion

  27. Understanding Our Heritage

  28. Keys To Nurturing A Sense of History #1 Teach your "little story" of faith and your family history #2 Share the "big story" of faith

  29. #3 Share the heroes of faith with your kids #4 Clarify doctrinal questions

  30. #5 Spend time together learning your family's values * Substance abuse standards * Way of life standards * Popular cultural standards

  31. Developing Family Spirituality

  32. #1 Build Strong Relationships

  33. #2 Know what your children are doing #3 Know your children's friends #4 Help them make responsible choices

  34. #5 Search for a spiritual community where your family can thrive #6 Start your family's journey now

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